North Korean hacker responsible for Bangladesh Bank heist

Confidential employee information, emails and details of some stars' earnings were revealed in the embarrassing data breach.

The U.S. charged a North Korean programmer Thursday with some of the most dramatic global hacking cases of recent years, alleging they were carried out on behalf of the regime in Pyongyang. "Some of the operational accounts were used in the name "Kim Hyon Woo" (or variations of that name), an alias that the subjects used in connection with the targeting of and cyber-attacks on SPE, Bangladesh Bank, and other victims".

"The scale and scope of the cyber-crimes alleged by the complaint is staggering and offensive to all who respect the rule of law and the cyber norms accepted by responsible nations", said John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

The state-sponsored attacks were allegedly carried out by a group of North Korean hackers who worked for a front company called Chosun Expo Joint Venture, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice (DoJ) said at a press conference on Thursday. Sony was responsible for The Interview, a fictionalized assassination of North Korea's leader.

The attacks are alleged to have been carried out from North Korea, China and other countries. According to the DOJ's complaint, the North Korean agent worked through a front company called Chosun Expo Joint Venture and operated out of both North Korea and China.

"The criminal conduct outlined in this case is intolerable", said Tracy Wilkison, the first assistant USA attorney in Los Angeles. In recent years the department has charged hackers from China, Iran and Russian Federation in hopes of publicly shaming other countries for sponsoring cyberattacks on US corporations.

The criminal complaint, filed in Los Angeles, alleges that the hackers committed several attacks from 2014 until 2018.

In 2014, the Obama administration charged five Chinese military hackers with several digital break-ins at United States companies, and previous year, the Justice Department charged Russian hackers with an intrusion at Yahoo Inc.

The Treasury Department also announced Thursday that it would impose sanctions against Park and the Korean Expo Joint Venture.

The charges were announced as President Trump and his administration negotiations with North Korea to end its nuclear program.